Kodaikanal

Hi all ! Iam one of those countless professionals who have come back to India from the United States after an 8 year stint. Well, i am not cursing yet :) But i thought i had share with all of you my take on living in India. I work for a product firm in Bangalore and have enough flexibility to work from home. My wife is from Mumbai while i am a native of Chennai. I am sure you can imagine the culture clashes between me and my spouse!!!

Guess what, i am happy to say that i was able to convince my wife out of the "Mumbai is the best" mindset. Having said that, full marks to her for understanding my viewpoint.

We have a own house in besant nagar, a supposedly posh area in Chennai but live in a rented house in Bangalore where the rental rates are higher than in the East Coast. After living in bangalore for a year , we asked ourselves " Is it really worth paying a rent of 15K + and living in  a city where it takes 1 hr to travel 6 kms" . I guess everyone has at some point posed this question to themselves but have refrained from providing a firm "Yes" or "No" to it. We decided we will risk picking a "No" and see where life takes us !!! And it has been a roller coaster ride since then !

We sold our house in Chennai inspite of our relatives screaming that we were mad ! Having done that, we decided on Kodaikanal as a place we would like to build  a nice house on a large extent of land. Both of us were very clear that we will not pay 60 lakhs for a 3 bhk apt in bangalore where if you extend your hand from your balcony you are most likely to touch the wall of the next building ! And mind you, i have a lot of colleagues who have paid up 90lakhs to book an apartment that does not have a fully functioning lift and most of these apartments deliver the house at least 1 year after the promised date.

We also decided to hedge our weather exposure (given the cold weather in Kodai) by buying an apartment in Madurai which cost us less that 1/4th of the amount for which we sold our chennai house. Well so the next question that comes up is what about work? what about children's education?? what about friends?? what about emergency services?

Lets take each of these questions . As i said earlier i can work from home and my wife is a self-employed CA. So for us location does not matter. And even if it did, i would have anyday preferred to taking up a low paying job in Madurai (where the cost of living is low) to taking up a high profile well paying job in Bangalore (where the money is frittered away on the house rent and EMI). I put my money and time to better use. You would all agree with me that more time spent with family is something everyone wants but rarely gets in a place like Bangalore where you spend 33% of your time at work, 25% on the road , 33% sleeping and 9% with family. How about 33% at work and 67% with family.  And i agree this is not a practical solution to everyone but it should work for IT folks who have that flexibility. Just trying to make life easier for myself and others in anyway possible !

Now the next question... Children's education?? Lets be honest about this. If you are going to spend 9% of your time with your kids it does not matter where you send your kids to study. Whether it is the international school or the ICSE school or the montessori school, your kids still need you in their impressionable years. I strongly feel that since i and my wife are well educated we will be able to use 67% of our time to inculcate good values and education to our kids above and beyind basic schooling that any school can provide. Kids have everything (books, money, ipods, cellphones) except attention. And this is not specific to the upper class. This is trickling into the middle class as well. Who is to blame?? Of course the bad roads and the bad traffic coupled with gruelling work hours ! Moreover, there is a sense of peer pressure at work where everyone wants to admit their kid in a school where their peer's kids are admitted. There is peer pressure among 10 year kids as well (iam sure you have read it in India Today! ). Iam not against buying expensive things for my kids. Iam against buying things for my kid just because his friend has it. This creates a "copy cat" mindset and curbs independent thinking. Every kid goes to yoga classes or music classes or dancing lessons. My question is, why not a camping trip?  Iam sure 'Taare Zameen Par" has already influenced you in a profound way. My guess is that the biggest things that kids miss today are trips involving nature ! With every passing day, most of our cities are turning into concrete jungles. It is even more imperative that the younger generation understand the importance of nature. Forget global warming, i am just talking about places like kerala which have held their own in the face of globalization (with all those lovely trees)!!! 

What about friends ?? Lets face it friends!, if we spend just 9% of our time with family iam not sure if friends come into the picture. Given the emergence of Linkedin, Orkut and Facebook online interactions seem to be in vogue . Well i do accept the fact that beer cannot be consumed through these sites ! So the occasional drink would still require friends to meet at a pub. Moreover, everything in the cities are commercialized today. I still remember the get together we used to have for new year celebration 10 years back. But today there is a minimum entry charge of Rs1000 for a new year celebration . Not to mention the harassment and other untowardly incidents on such occasions. So basically, everyone is gravitating towards a lifestyle where online networking is regular and a face to face meeting is occasional. Infact, having a nice big house in Kodai, i plan to throw a nice new year bash every year so all close friends can celebrate as we did 10 years back !! No traffic, no incidents and no entry fees!!!!!

Last but not the least, emergency services?? If it is going to take you 1 hr to travel 6km in the city i dont think it matters where you stay. 

So my point is, if all the above can be done staying far away from the city with the added benefit of time spent with family, better environment, less congestion, less polution, better health and a good lifestyle (Camping,Trekking)why not go for it ! Myself and my wife have decided to implement this plan the first phase of which will be building the house. We plan to shift there a couple of years after the house is built maybe 4-5 years from now. Given the fact that we havent invested in real estate in any of the major cities there isnt any other option for us !

Having said all the above, i do agree that a lot of what i have said is subjective and am looking forward to a different viewpoint. I have always heard people say "I love mumbai and can never leave such a city " . Frankly speaking, my take is  "I love my quality of life and am willing to move to any place to maintain that standard" . WRT kodai, i expect it to be as polluted and congested as Bangalore maybe in another 50 years ( the place where we are building a house is quite remote) , so i dont expect to move untill then.